Narrator: Every morning at sunrise,
Kashmiri farmers gatherer at Srinagar's
famous floating market on Dal Lake.
Mohammad Sadiq Kaand paddles half a mile to get there
from his home to the other side of the water.
Just a decade ago, Mohammad would have met up
with hundreds of other sellers.
These days though, there are just a few dozen left.
Most of their families have traded here for generations.
Narrator: Srinagar's floating market has survived
decades of conflict, political upheaval,
and natural disasters.
But today, the lake itself is at risk.
Sewage dumping and pollution are suffocating
the waters farmers depend on.
Narrator: We went to Dal Lake in Indian-administered
Kashmir to find out how this floating market
is still standing.
Narrator: Roughly 60,000 people depend on Dal Lake
for their livelihoods.
Many work in tourism and fishing.
But the lake's agriculture
is one of its most important industries.
On this cold winter morning,
Mohammad picks up collard greens to sell.
Narrator: What makes them unique is how they're grown.
People began farming inside the lake centuries ago.
Over time, generations of farmers passed down their methods.
Narrator: These floating gardens are called
raad in Kashmiri.
Some grow naturally. Others are artificial.
Farmers weave together wetland plants
and bring up the roots and soil from the bottom of the lake
to layer into what is essentially a floating mat.
They plant collard leaves, turnips, carrots,
and other produce.
But the market's most popular crop
actually grows under the water.
The lotus root, locally known as nadru,
is used in many Kashmiri dishes.
And Dal Lake is considered one of
the region's best producers.
Narrator: The floating market runs every day
for two hours, even in the dead of winter.
Farmers wear an iconic woolen overcoat
called a pheran to keep warm.
They share a traditional Kashmiri green tea called kahwa
that's mixed with cinnamon, cardamom, and saffron.
And they wait for shopkeepers who travel from the city
to buy their vegetables.
It's a ritual that has been going on
for at least 100 years.
Narrator: Floating markets like this one
were once a central part of life across Asia.
They date back to the 14th century,
but most still around today are less than 200 years old.
They popped up in places like Vietnam, Thailand,
and parts of India where rivers, wetlands, and coastlines
were the main routes for transporting people and goods.
So trading on the water made a lot of sense.
But as infrastructure improved
and roads were built in these areas,
vendors started to move their goods by land.
By the mid-20th century, floating markets throughout Asia
became tourist attractions, like Dal Lake's market.
Visitors filled the hundreds of houseboats lining the lake.
They take rides in small boats called shikaras
to get an up close look at the floating market.
By the 1980s, tourism became a thriving industry.
Narrator: But Kashmir lies on a political
and religious fault line.
And that has made it hard to keep attracting visitors.
India and Pakistan began to fight over the territory
after they gained independence from British rule in 1947.
Unrest flared up again in the 1990s,
and fighting between separatists and Indian security forces
drove most tourists away.
Despite ongoing conflict,
farmers here kept growing and selling produce
from their boats every morning for decades.
But in 2014, devastating floods brought everything
to a halt for the first time in the market's history.
Narrator: Dal Lake was virtually deserted.
The market stopped.
Narrator: It took farmers months to recover.
Eventually, more than a year later,
things began to pick up again.
But as Srinagar's population grew,
so did its environmental problems.
By the 1980s, locals were complaining about the sewage
being dumped from hundreds of houseboats.
Studies show they're one of the lake's biggest polluters.
Narrator: But that's just one part
of a massive waste problem.
The government admitted that more than 44 million liters
of sewage from the city was being dumped
into the lake every day.
That's enough to fill more than
17 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Narrator: The government announced it would connect
all houseboats to sewage plants last year.
It banned plastic on the lake shore
and ordered mechanical dredgers to scoop out invasive weeds
and other kinds of waste.
But even a cleaned up Dal Lake
would still face yet another challenge.
Narrator: Mohammad says farming hasn't been
profitable enough to entice the next generation.
In fact, some vegetables cost him more to grow
than what he can sell them for.
And competition has grown fierce.
Narrator: It's why many farmers are unsure
about the future of the market.
Some have left farming or work other jobs just to get by.
Narrator: Mohammad makes just enough
to care for himself and his wife, Saleema Jan.
But he refuses to let that discourage him.
He has hope that the lake, its floating gardens,
and the market will survive.